


On an Impulse

by alicat54c



Series: Rogue Step [5]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Earth-3, Gen, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-10-31 11:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10898199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicat54c/pseuds/alicat54c
Summary: Years later, after her mother's death, Misha meets the Flash....“Hi!” She chirped.“Hi,” Barry said slowly. “Uh. Who are you?”The girl squared her thin shoulders, arms crossed over her chest. “I’m Misha Allen.”The Flash’s brows furrowed. “I saw you when I went to Earth 3 a few months ago… but you were just a baby then.”Misha shrugged, arms wrapped tight over her chest. “Gideon said the timelines of our worlds don’t line up exactly.”





	1. Meanwhile on Earth-1

…ch1  
… Meanwhile on Earth-1  
…

On a blank stretch of asphalt, tucked securely into the center of Central’s suburbia, a young woman flashed into existence. She stumbled half a step, bent over, as if to catch her breath. After a moment, she looked up, crease of her brows furrowing more deeply as her surroundings failed to find purchase in her memory. She rubbed a hand over her face, scrubbing at her streaming eyes, and sniffed. When her barring continued to be lost, she reached for her other arm. 

Pushing up the red and tan sleeve of her outfit, the girl perused the bulky watch like device strapped to her wrist. 

“Gideon, where am I?”

The watch glowed with a pale blue light, before answering in the polite British cant of a woman’s voice. “You appear to be in Central City of Earth Two, circa 2016.”

“Huh?”

The AI continued, placidly. “My scans are indicating that this place vibrates at a different frequency than your home dimension, and upon further delving into my limited memory banks, due to my compacted form, I have deduced that this place aligns with previous data taken several years ago by Vibe.”

“Great.” The girl took a breath, held it for half a heartbeat, before letting it go.

“If I may,” Gideon cut in, before she could speak again. “My records show that Earth 2 has extensive experience with other Earths, so making your way towards Star Labs would most likely lead to more answers than I can provide.”

The girl considered this, then nodded sharply. “Ok. Let’s go.” Adjusting the cowl over her face, she streaked away in a blur of lightning.  
…

“Uh, Barry? You might want to come over here…”

The forensic scientist flashed over from where he and Caitlyn were chatting over one of his case files. She looked put out at her medical diagnosis of the victim being cut short, but hustled over as well, all be it at a much slower pace.

“What’s up?”

Cisco gestured at the security feed currently taking up one of his computer screens. Outside the front doors of Star Labs, a lanky figure in a cream and crimson suit shifted from foot to foot. Arms uncrossed from over its chest to punch at the intercom buzzer.

“Uh, who’s the cosplayer?” Barry asked.

“Wait, lemme just rewind this…” The scientist clicked a button, causing the screen to fuzz, and the figure to vanish. He hit play, and the empty entryway reappeared in real time on the screen. Then in a blur of lightning, the stranger reappeared, and punched the intercom.

Caitlyn gaped. “Did they just-“

“Yup.” Cisco leaned back in his chair.

“Do we know what they want?” She asked.

“Hey, you guys know just about as much as I do.”

“I’ll meet her at the door,” Barry said, blurring away before his friends could so much as comment.

He opened the door, and the strange speedster looked up at him. She, as Barry could see now that her arms were uncrossed, didn’t look older than sixteen. Her ice blue eyes blinked at him from behind her mask owlishly, before recollecting into a grin that did not entirely reach past her teeth.

“Hi!” She chirped.

“Hi,” Barry said slowly. “Uh. Who are you?”

The girl squared her thin shoulders, arms crossed over her chest. “I’m Misha Allen.”

The Flash’s brows furrowed. “I saw you when I went to Earth 3 a few months ago… but you were just a baby then.”

Misha shrugged, arms wrapped tight over her chest. “Gideon said the timelines of our worlds don’t line up exactly.”

“You have Gideon?”

“Of course!” She held out her wrist, where a bulky looking watch glowed blue.

“Hello Barry Allen of Earth Two,” the British woman’s voice said.

“Uh, hey.” The speedster looked from the girl to the watch and back again. “So, uh. What brings you to our earth?”

“I’m taking some time off.” Misha said, eyes casually shifted to the left. “Thought it would be interesting to go to a different dimension instead of the Bahamas.”

“And you picked here?”

“Well, our records said you guys had experience with dimensional rifts. Seemed better to come here, than go somewhere else where I would have to explain everything.”

Barry looked at her, head tilted slightly. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Great.” Misha clapped her hands. “So. What do you do for fun around here?”

“Well…I was just about to go out on patrol.”

“Sounds fun.” Her drawl could have frozen a shipyard.

“I guess you can tag along.”

The girl quirked a smile, more fragile than her booming countenance would indicate. “I’ve always been curious what being the Flash entailed.”

Barry glanced at her. “Did my counterpart never let you go out with her? Joe was like that for Iris- stopped her from joining the police academy.”

“No. It was nothing like that. Mama vanished when I was little, so I lived with Len. Vibe and the League took over watching Central.”

“Oh.”

The teen shrugged nonchalantly. “Anyway. So, patrol?”

“And then dinner!” She agreed. With a cheeky wink, she darted away. Barry paused for half a heart beat, before a grin split his face, and he ran after her.  
…

The night was slow, all things considered. Barry usually didn’t patrol the city at night, unless the police had gotten a tip of some crime in potential need of the Flash’s assistance.

All he had encountered with his new…sidekick was a mugger, which he easily apprehended. He could hear Cisco over his headset call the police to pick the guy up.

“Male, white, wearing a sweatshirt,” Barry dictated the perps appearance. “Looks like he might be a body builder.”

“That’s not what his ID says,” Misha commented, flipping open a brown leather square. 

Barry looked over at her, expression flat. “You stole his wallet. Seriously?”

The younger speedster raised an eyebrow, questioning his statement. “I’m multitasking.”

“Your father would be so proud.”

Misha whirled on the Flash.

“My father is a good man.” She snarled, practically nose to nose with him. “And if I ever hear you bad mouth him again, you’ll find yourself half way over the north China sea with no life vest.”

Barry held up his hands as if to ward off her arctic anger, but Misha was already on a roll.

“Heroes are a dime a dozen and die for stupid reasons, leaving good people to pick up the pieces of what they leave behind.” Her tone could have sunk the titanic, all the more cutting for how it remained level and cool. “All they think about is how they’re right, and everyone else should just listen to them because they know better. Well news Flash, you don’t know anything about my family, and you especially don’t know anything about my father! And if I hear you say ONE MORE WORD AGAINST HIM I’ll-“ her throat closed off in a choking sob.

Barry made to reach for her shoulder, but she had already dashed away.  
…

The city blurred around Misha in a mixture of tears and speed. Stupid Flash. Stupid heroes. Stupid Earth Two. She just wanted to- her breath caught at the half formed thought, and she redoubled her pumping legs’ effort.

Something flickered at the corner of her vision as she dashed through a long line of apartment complexes. She paused, despite herself.

The building was on fire.

Misha worried her bottom lip. In the distance, she could hear the disjointed revving whine of sirens, still trying to wrestle their way through down town traffic. She mentally calculated them as still being at least fifteen minutes away.

She could run.

No one would know.

She was still snugly vibrating in the Speed Force- no one would even have seen her pause for half a heartbeat here.

But-

But.

She tasted blood as she pulled the cowl down over her face, expression grimly resigned. Taking a final gulp of clean air, the young speedster dashed into the building.  
…

“I’m here at the Avenue, where a fire broke out in a string of apartment complexes, due to what is assumed to be faulty wiring in the older un-renovated parts of the buildings. The fires quickly found their way to a local gas main. However, what would have ended in tragedy, with the death of hundreds, was averted, by another selfless citizen coming to the forefront of our city.” 

The impeccable reporter beamed at the camera, and walked towards an ambulance, where a brightly suited figure sat, breathing into an oxygen mask, while a paramedic looked her over. 

“I’m here with Central’s newest hero.” A microphone was shoved in the girl’s sooty face. “Miss, would you like to make a comment about your heroic act today?”

“I’m not a hero.” The teen stated flatly. Her ears were still ringing from the explosion.

“The citizens of Central would beg to differ! Do you work with the Flash?”

“No. I’m not a hero.” She said again, barely able to hear her own voice over the siren inside her skull.

“Then are you-“

Misha rubbed at her ears frantically, turning from the camera to stumble down the street. The oxygen mask was left hanging in the back of the ambulance.

“Miss!” The reporter called, but the speedster had already pulled time around her like a blanket, slowing the world to molasses.

“I’m not a hero.” She gasped to her palpitating heart. “I’m not.”

She found herself on the doorstep of a familiar house, still too new and unworn by a life she treasured, before collapsing.   
…  
…


	2. Chapter 2

...

Misha’s first coherent memory was of laughter.

It’s her sixth birthday party, and what started as an intimate family affair with her parents, quickly devolved into the Rogues and half of the Justice League stopping by unexpectedly.

The tense atmosphere might have held steady, if not for a careless comment from Green Lantern about how all of the Rogues’s gifts were probably stolen. That caused Mick to break out his flame thrower, and Arrow to throw a smoke grenade at Piper.

Barry, in an attempt to save the ice cream cake Len had spent hours putting together, tried to run it to the other side of the room, forgetting the effect her speed had on most things. That ended with the Flash covered head to foot in a mixture of melted vanilla fudge swirl dairy, trying to wipe it from her eyes.

Meanwhile, Len was trying to hold back his sister’s attempt to crystalize Superman, who had scratched Sam’s mirror when the meta attempted to escape a mauling by Hawkgirl. He ended up with a black eye from one of Trickster’s yoyo’s for his trouble, and was just about to throw up his hands and ice the lot, when a high giggle broke through the chaos.

Perched at the head of the table, blue dress liberally bedecked with red frills half covered in soot, Michael clapped her hands at the war unfolding around her, smile manic with childish glee.

Cold looked from his partners in crime being held in various headlocks by heroes, to his partner in parenthood discreetly licking ice cream soup from her fingers. His lips twitched, and a deep chuckle escaped him.

Barry’s eyes met his, and she too began to laugh.

Soon, the whole party descended into a mixture of bemusement and wry humor. Superman flew to some confectioner in France for a replacement cake (which Barry swore was not as good as Len’s), and the Rogues procured some replacement decorations.

Needless to say, Cold and the Flash made a point to ask that everyone RSVP if they planned to go to any kind of event with their family in the future.  
…

When Michael was about nine years old, the Flash sat her daughter down on the stairs of Grandpa Joe’s house, and asked if she wanted to be a big sister.

“Will I have a sister or a brother?” The little girl had asked.

Her mother smiled secretly, a hand skittering over the red polymer over her abdomen. “It’s looking like it might be both.”

Michael considered this, and nodded seriously. “Ok. When are you gonna get them?”

“Maybe about five or six months. It might bee sooner.”

The little girl nodded again, and allowed her to kiss her forehead before running off to solve some local crisis.

That was the last time she would ever see her mother.

Later, her father sat her down on those very same stairs.

“Something happened while your mother was fighting Eobard Thawne.” He said carefully, hands folded on his knee. “So, she is going to be away for a while, and we don’t know how long.”

“Don’t cry Len,” Michael said, slipping from the step to curl close against her father’s chest. “Momma probably just went to go get me my new brother and sister.”

“What?”

The little girl nodded against his neck, squirming in his tightening hold. “She said she was gonna make me big sister, and that I was gonna get two little siblings, and that she would get them in a few months, but she probably went to get them early-“

Something dropped onto her cotton shirt, the tear staining the fabric a deeper blue.

“Len?” Michael tried to pull back and see her father’s face, but he simply held her closer to his heart.

“Sorry baby girl.” His voice broke over the last two words, and he cleared his throat. “You momma didn’t tell me about your new siblings yet. I’m just so-“ His breath hitched, “- happy. And w-when she comes back, I’ll make sure she knows too.”

She never did.  
…

Of course, no one ever speaks aloud of the death of a hero, it’s such an effervescent thing. There was no body, Flash could turn up any day now. Yet, as the days without the Flash mounted higher than the days with, certain day to day factors could no longer be ignored by hope.

Micheal didn’t understand any of this at the time though. She just remembered hiding on the top of the staircase and peering over the landing to where Grandpa Joe confronted her father at the front door.

“I never approved of Barry’s deal with you, and I’ll be damned if I let you anywhere around my grand-kid without her here.”

“You can’t keep me from my daughter, detective.”

“Well I have a court order waiting to be signed that says otherwise.”

“It’s favors like the ones you pulled to get that that gave me the illustrious childhood I had.”

The old officer growled. “You come anywhere near her, Snart, and I’ll have the League on speed dial to haul your ass straight to Iron Heights.”

There was a pause. “Fine, detective, I guess you win the round. But this isn’t over.” The door slammed, covering her father’s retreating steps.

Grandpa Joe’s face was practically purple with rage, and he huffed his way towards the kitchen. His breathing became even more labored the further away he went, until Michael heard a loud thump.

Abandoning the pretense of playing in her room, the little girl dashed down to the first floor, to see her grandfather lying face down on the tile. Ingrained instincts had her dialing 911, and soon she found herself in a hospital chair with an overly bubbly nurse who didn’t seem to understand the need for silence.

When a familiar freezing villain stalked in, the girl could only sigh in relief when the woman fled.

“Len!” Michael screamed, hurtling herself into her father’s embrace at speeds just short of a sonic boom.

“Hey there little girl.” The thief ‘oophed’ as he caught her and settled her onto his hip, in a motion she would soon outgrow. 

“Grandpa Joe fell down, and they won’t let him out of the hospital now.” She complained, lip jutting out in a pout. “I wanna go home!”

Her father hummed in the back of his throat. “Your grandfather’s heart is not feeling too cool, so he needs to stay here until he gets better. How do you feel about staying with me until then?”

“In the secret hideout?”

“Sure.”

“Ok!”

A few weeks later, and Joe’s condition continued to decline.

Michael remembered going to the hospital, and clinging to Uncle Irey’s hand as they said farewell to a body which had still not woken. She remembered going back to Grandpa Joe’s house, where all the officers from CCPD and a few from Star City congregated around groaning tables of casserole. A few members of the League flitted in cognito between the friends and family, their well wished added into the masses.

One guest’s arrival parted the crowd like a glaring Red Sea. He stalked to where the youngest member of the congregation sat on a chair in the corner, and sunk down to his knees.

Michael blinked, and rubbed a hand over her eyes. “Len.”

“Hey baby girl.”

She sniffed. “They’re all saying Grandpa Joe’s dead, but he was just in the hospital. People in hospitals are supposed to get better and come back home.”

“Your grandfather’s not coming back. I’m sorry.”

The crowd’s scowls intensified at the callous way the criminal spoke.

“But he was supposed to.”

“Michael, your grandfather’s not coming back.” Len repeated again, ignoring the disapproving hisses coming from around them, in favor of meeting the little girl’s eye. “Do you understand what that means?”

Michael nodded. “Like momma.”

Her father’s breath hitched, and his fingers spasmed. “…yes.” 

“Oh.” She ran a hand over her puffy eyes. “You’re not gonna go away too, are you?”

He pulled her from the chair to his chest, voice fierce when he spoke. “Never.”

The little girl clung back. “Ok.”  
…

“I like you Leonard, and for some reason Barry liked you too, but if it wasn’t for how well I’ve seen you treat Michael, that still wouldn’t be enough to make me help you.” Uncle Irey’s voice could never quite make the growl of his father, but the threat was still present.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” The thief drawled.

The younger man scoffed. “The League is trying to have you labeled as an unfit guardian. Something about a meta of Michael’s caliber needing better role models lest she fall to a life of crime, or something.”

“They’re not going to take my daughter away.”

“Well, you have to give them something Leonard.”

There was a pause. “I need a week.”  
…

Len bought the house from Irey West, citing some study about children needing familiar environments when going through trying circumstances. 

He limited all official contact with the Rogues, and handed over the reigns of power to his sister (who had been the one with all the actual power for years now, but she understood the gesture).

The contract for a floundering novelty ice cream shop found its way into his possession, and Len renovated the interior to include a few ovens away from the cooler. He also commandeered Piper into creating his new ice cream cake shop an on line order site, and spam advertisements on every wedding and party site within a hundred mile radius.

(When Mick joked about how Cold had become a criminal because he hated work and loved money, Len snapped back that he found something he loved more.)

So when the Justice League discreetly tried to sweep Michael away in the night, Len had a pass from social services, and the highlighted clauses of Barry’s will which dealt with the custody of her children should she be unable to care for them.

The heroes tried to contest his claims, but the person who usually funded their lawyers apparently did not approve of them pursuing a custody battle when world saving needed to be done.

(Elsewhere, Bruce Wayne kept an obsessive eye on the former thief, knowing that losing a parent could do more to twist a child than any bad example.)

Of course, Michael didn’t know any of this until she was much older. What she did know was that Uncle Irey came over and packed up lots of Grandpa Joe’s stuff. He didn’t glare at the house’s newest residence, unlike everyone else who had visited, but he did make several strongly worded statements to the thief, before leaving.  
…

So Michael grew up, like all children do. She ate too much cake from her father’s business, was home schooled, gushed over the latest movies and books with her aunts and uncles. Cisco in particular held some perverse pleasure in hosting movie nights, where the young speedster crammed onto a couch between whichever members of the Justice League were in town to watch Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.

The other half of her family, with strict orders to keep all cape and mask related personas out of the house, would stop by for intimate dinners, where Lisa would lament the art trade prices, and Piper showed her how to wire a circuit board over dessert.

Needless to say, both ends of her life felt the other was a horrible example for the maturing meta.

“They’re trying to recruit you.” Lisa scoffed, when she saw the portable communication ear buds she had gotten for her birthday.

Later, Green Lantern said the same thing, when the girl showed off her lock picking skills.

Michael just pressed her lips together, and tried not to pick at her fingers. Len said the tell was too noticeable, and she should try to stop if she ever wanted to be able to lie to him about who ate all the cake mix in the fridge.

It all came to a head when the speedster got a call from Star Labs. She jogged over to see Uncle Cisco and Hal with Firestorm beaming, while they pulled back a curtain to reveal a model in a case wearing tri-polimer red and cream suit, just her size.

“You were complaining about your shoes catching on fire,” Cisco explained giddily. “And I thought I might as well go all out and make you a super suit! Come on! Try it out!”

The teen’s fingers tapped too fast for anyone else in the room to see her malcontent, but she walked to the restroom to change despite her misgivings. When she re-emerged, the assembled heroes practically cooed. 

“You remind me of your mom the first time she wore one of my suits.” Cisco’s smile was equal parts sad and exuberant. “Next thing we know, you’ll be running around town saving the day like her too!”

“Central’s newest hero!” Hal crowed.

No one noticed the girl’s forced smile switch off, nor the way her hands curled like claws around her elbows.

“Some of the League is thinking about starting a sub set for the next generation, you know? Like a Young Justice, or Teen Titans.” Cisco’s grin widened at the monikers. “We all thought it would be great if you signed up! You know, meet people your own age and get involved.”

“I could just join a school club. Or, you know, go to school at all.” The young woman tried.

“Misha, you got your GED when you were ten,” Hal chuckled.

“I could still go for electives though, if I wanted.”

“But then we wouldn’t have our super special Science Hour!” Cisco whined.

Michael grinned habitually. “I guess I can’t say no.”

“That’s the spirit!” The two heroes crowed.

The speedster’s knuckles were white.  
…

Here is what happened.

At 6:47 Michael left Star Labs, wearing her new super suit. 

A streak of red lightning could be seen doing laps around the city, amid the cheers and applause of Central’s residents, until 7:15, when it vanished into a bank.

The vault cameras would detect a blur emptying several cases of gold bars, before dashing away.

At 7:20, the speedster dropped the stolen goods on a park bench, and sat on the ground, her knees drawn up to her forehead.

At 9:03 Vibe found her there, and sat to her left. 

At 9:33 he would ask if she wanted to go home, then Star Labs, when she shook her head. So he took her elsewhere.

By 10:00 Hal had arrived, expression thunderous. He entered the tiny interrogation room where the teenager hunched over a plate of untouched doughnuts. He sighed, expression softening, before sitting across from her.

“Misha, why did you do it? Did someone make you?”

The speedster shook her head. “No.” 

“Then why?”

She shrugged.

He changed tactics. “This is not the way a hero in training should act.”

Her posture curled around itself more tightly.

“You look at me when I’m talking to you, young lady!”

“I’m not gonna be a hero!” She blurted, face twisted in a snarl. “I’ve never wanted to be a hero! I hate how all you guys in the League just expect me to be like my mother, because you all feel guilty for getting her killed! Well, NEWS FLASH, I’m not her, and I’m not a hero! So stop trying to make me one! I stole that stuff because I could. Me. Not anyone else.”

Hal leaned in across the table. “You don’t mean that Michael.”

She seethed. “Yes I do! And if you’re just going to not listen to me, as usual, then just GET OUT!”

Scowling, the man stood, seat scraping across the floor, and left the room. The door clicked shut behind him, but she could still hear the muffled voices through the metal.

“We should call her father,” someone, maybe Cisco, murmured.

“No!” Snapped Green Lantern. “He’s apart of the problem! I don’t care that Cold supposedly turned over a new leaf, he’s clearly not a good role model for her.”

A murmur of ascent followed his words.

“Someone in the League could take her in.” A soft voice piped. “Arrow maybe? Or Superman, since he could keep up with her speed.”

“Vixen might be good too-“

Michael had heard enough.

Carefully, so as not to alert the assembled heroes just outside, the speedster began to shiver, until the edges of her outline began to blur and wisp. She pressed herself against the wall, and slipped her atoms through the unforgiving cement and steel. In an instant she had passed through the outer wall of the Justice League building and stood in the cool night air.

Michael ran.

Her first stop was Star Labs, where she snapped up a wrist mounted super computer, before dashing to an abandoned field several miles outside of the city.

“Gideon,” she barked at her wrist. “Have any of the League notices that I’ve gone yet?”

The screen blinked a light blue. “Yes, Misha Allen. They’ve mobilized the fastest members to catch you, and are monitoring the globe for signs of speed force usage.”

The teen gnawed her lower lip. “Is there anywhere I can avoid them?”

“The probability of you being able to stay hidden with the entirety of the League searching for you is-“

“Is there anywhere I can go where they won’t find me then?” 

Gideon paused in calculation. “No location on earth you have access to would provide such a hiding spot.”

“Then I’ll just not stay on this earth.”  
…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …  
> A/N:
> 
> background. Honestly, this fic came to be just for these background scenes.

**Author's Note:**

> …  
> A/N:
> 
> She’s wearing the Impulse outfit, btw.
> 
> Wow, I just dug this up from my archives. I know it's not the sequel anyone wanted, but I'm going through stuff to post.


End file.
